Examines the lives of sixteen women who served as medics, spies, battlefield helpers, and even disguised themselves as men and fought.

Part I. Soldiers -- Sarah Emma Edmonds: Soldier, nurse, spy -- Frances Elizabeth Quinn: "Hurrah for God's country!" -- Mary Ann Clark: "A good Rebel soldier" -- Frances Louisa Clayton: A rough Northern soldier -- Maria Lewis: "She rode in the front ranks" -- Part II. Spies -- Harriet Tubman: Moses' great Combahee Raid -- Mary Carroll: A Missouri Rebel -- Loreta Janeta Velazquez: The Confederate lioness -- Mary Jane Richards: Spy in the Confederate White House -- Part III. Nurses -- Georgeanna Woolsey: "Changed by this contact with terror" -- Susie King Taylor: A young nurse in the "First South" -- Harriet Ann Jacobs: "She did her own thinking" -- Cornelia Hancock: Battlefield angel -- Part IV. Vivandieres -- Marie Tepe: "French Mary" -- Kady Brownell: Heroine of New Bern -- Annie Lorinda Etheridge: "This is my place.".